By Guest Writer, Melissa Maranto

Technology is proving more and more to be an exciting evolution in the way students learn. It is something that many people anticipate and look forward to learning and growing with. If you put the latest iPad in front of a group of people, it is going to steal their attention and spur their fascination. Very seldom will someone with an iPad in front of them let it just sit there. In the case of education, there is no difference. It is more than likely that if you put a hardcopy textbook and an e-book in front of a student, he will gravitate toward the e-book. Although the educational material is identical in both mediums, formatting that same material on an iPad, or any other piece of recent technology, promotes learning in a way that has never been seen before. Technology is preparing students for the job market that involves direct application of various computer programs to prepare entry level candidates for positions at tech companies like Intel or lifelock jobs.

iPad's in the Classroom

Never before has technology played such a pivotal role in the educational process as the iPad. Educational shows on TV and video learning programs have aided in the classroom in the past, but the limitations of these programs are obviously apparent — they are only useful for a few hours at most. Now, however, technological aids in the classroom have the ability to entertain for hours and become an everyday, if not permanent fixture in the classroom.

One of the most recent examples of technology becoming a fixture in the classroom was when the San Diego Unified School District purchased 26,000 iPads for use in over 340 classrooms throughout the city. Costing roughly $15 million, the price was worth it for those students wishing to attend colleges in San Diego or other prestigious universities around the country. The use of iPads with the learning of students at colleges in San Diego, and high schools in the area, is a big step, one that is ahead of many other school districts in the nation.

Learning is a Game

Students who used the iPad and one of its math applications experienced an increase in test scores by 15% over traditional learning. This is a big revelation for local schools that now have statistical data to back their requests to incorporate technology, like that of the iPad, in the classroom.

With the seemingly endless selection of apps available on tablet devices like the iPad, the opportunity for students to learn in a fun, and exciting new light is suddenly abundant. Although not all apps are educational on the iPad, and some are even inappropriate for students of younger ages, there are numerous options that have the potential to increase constructive learning for students, both inside and outside the classroom. Students can use apps like Motion Math, to treat learning as a game with scores and incentives to continue their studies.

The most transformative new concept is Apple Textbooks and its companion app iBooks, which allows authors and publishers to design textbooks that users can download directly to their iPad. This will take the traditional hardcopy textbook and make it virtual for students. Student can carry around as a practically weightless study guide. While this sort of implementation has yet to make a wide spread appearance in schools around the country, the possibility of this becoming a reality is beyond exciting.

By Reading Horizons Reading Specialist, Stacy Hurst

By the time most of us first encountered Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, we were fluent readers. However, I am sure that you can recall the sense of cognitive dissonance that the nonsense words in this poem created.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Essentially, you were having the same experience that many beginning readers have when they see words on a page for the first time. When we encounter nonsense words, we are forced to rely on our knowledge of the alphabetic code, rather than memorization, to read the words. Phonics instruction supplies learners with strategies for approaching unfamiliar words in text. In fact, research has shown that using nonsense words in phonics instruction can increase a student’s ability to read words with accuracy and automaticity.  Here are a few benefits of using nonsense words.

Nonsense words provide an effective way for teachers to assess how well a student is applying the skills that are being taught in phonics instruction.

Fluent decoding is the ability to quickly attach sound to written spelling patterns off the English language. When students memorize words as a whole, it is hard for a teacher to tell if they are relying on their decoding skills or memorization skills to read.



Professor of human development and applied psychology Keith Stanovich (2000) conducted a comprehensive review of the cause and effect relationship of children's overall reading ability, and their ability to decode nonsense words. He concluded that the ability to fluently decode nonsense words is discovered to be a "potent predictor of reading ability at all levels" (p. 100).

Practice with nonsense words improves a student’s ability to ‘attack’ unknown or unfamiliar words in text.

How often have you seen a student just stop reading when they come to a word they don’t readily recognize? Students who have had practice decoding words that they clearly know to be nonsense words, transfer the same word attack skills to real words. These skills allow them to appropriately use the context of a sentence to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words rather than unsuccessfully over-relying on context to decode words.

Nonsense words can be used to effectively teach syllabication.

Many children experience a plateau with reading in third or fourth grade. Up until that point, they have been able to get by with memorization and guessing strategies. By third or fourth grade, more advanced work attack skills are needed. Multi-syllabic words require decoding many small "word parts" and putting them together. These word parts are like nonsense words (mul-ti-pli-ca-tion).

One study, found that students who practiced syllabication skills by reading and spelling nonsense words made significantly greater improvements in word identification, word attack, and reading comprehension than their peers who did not have practice with nonsense words (Diliberto, Beattie, Flowers, & Algozzine, 2009).

Here a few ideas to make effective use of nonsense words in your phonics curriculum:

• Make sure that nonsense words are clearly identified as words that are not real. For example, Reading Horizons methodology uses an asterisk to mark each nonsense word.
• Explain to students that nonsense words do not make sense. In other words, they have no meaning unless you give them meaning (remember this book?).Teaching idea: In my first grade class, we identified words as ‘Alien’ words or words that would only make sense to a life form from another planet. During free-time students could create definitions for these words and add them to our Alien Dictionary.
• Use nonsense words responsibly. The majority of words used in phonics instruction should be real words. In fact, if you are teaching ELL students it is recommended that you use nonsense words only when you feel certain that they can distinguish them from real words.
• Not so great at creating nonsense words with more than one syllable? Here is one resource for generating multisyllabic nonsense words.

Students cannot read for meaning if they cannot decode words. Nonsense words can be a fun format for readers to apply the skills they have learned to unknown words. The pay-off for teachers will come as you see your students’ ability to fluently read and comprehend what they are reading.

Resources:

Diliberto, J., Beattie, J., Flowers, C., & Algozzine, R. (2009). Effects of teaching syllable skills instruction on reading achievement in struggling middle school readers. Literacy Research and Instruction, 48 (1) 14-28

Stanovich, K.E. (2000). Progress in understanding reading. New York, NY: Guilford.

With all the talk in the news about politics and education, it's good to look at what is really going on in regards to education and literacy:

These statistics expose serious economic consequences for individuals, state governments, and the nation.

In order to address these issues, we must first understand what is creating this great literacy deficit. There are three key contributors:

1. The presence of learning disabilities.
2. The fact that reading is a declining activity among teenagers and adults.
3. Secondary teachers receive limited training in adolescent literacy instruction. Each factor is discussed in more detail below.

Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities are common sources of reading problems. The most common and carefully studied learning disability is dyslexia, which affects five to 17 percent of the school-aged population, and affects 80 percent of individuals who are characterized as having a learning disability (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2001). Dyslexia affects reader’s ability to convert visual information into sounds, which makes it difficult to decode words and identify them. Fortunately,  research has shown that the brain can be “rewired” to learn these relationships with intensive phonics training (Shaywitz, S., 2003).

It is important to identify and address these deficits. Shaywitz & Shaywitz (2001) assert that “both dyslexic and non-impaired readers improve their reading scores as they get older, but studies show that the gap between the dyslexic and the non-impaired readers remains” (p. 3). In addition, Archer, et. al. (2003) report that, “74% of students identified with reading disabilities in third grade continue to have significant reading challenges in ninth grade (p. 89),” which illustrates the importance of providing appropriate intervention in intensive, systematic phonics training to struggling readers.

Reading Rates

A second contributing factor to low literacy skills is the fact that reading is declining as an activity among teenagers. Less than one-third of 13-year-olds in America read daily, and fifteen- to 24-year-olds spend 7-10 minutes a day reading voluntarily (NEA, 2007). When reading does occur, it often competes with other forms of media, which suggests “less focused engagement with a text” (p. 10). Struggling readers are less often engaged in text because they are less motivated to read (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Consequently, as the complexity of text increases, students fall further behind.

Teacher Training

A third factor that contributes to the challenges of appropriately addressing adolescent literacy deficits is the fact that secondary teachers receive limited training in adolescent literacy instruction. All secondary teachers are not expected to be trained in teaching foundational literacy skills; however, if content teachers were familiar with some of the literacy strategies used by the reading specialist or special education teacher, they could pre-teach difficult vocabulary and their class could decode difficult words together (NIFL, 2008).

In addition, secondary teachers are often frustrated that remediation services are less available and less effective for their struggling adolescent students than they are for struggling young readers and that fewer resources are directed to secondary schools for literacy. Reading and literacy specialists, administrators, and teachers are all important resources to systematically address struggling readers’ needs (NIFL, 2008).

Conclusion

In order to improve education and build a more literate nation, teachers must be trained to teach reading to students with learning disabilities and learn how to teach foundational literacy skills. As teachers learn how to remediate reading difficulties, struggling students will be more motivated to read because it will be less taxing. Teachers also need to help students discover texts that relate to their interests and match their reading level.

This post was adapted from an article on Heidi Hyte’s blog, ESLtrail.com

By Reading Horizons Reading Specialist, Stacy Hurst

As a pre-service teacher, my first classes in Educational Technology included how to use a DVD player in the classroom and how to build a HyperCard program (even then, HyperCard was pretty outdated). We have come a long way! The syllabi from today’s Educational Technology classes probably include things like internet safety, using social media in the classroom, database management tools, integrating software into classroom instruction and using web-based technologies to deliver instruction and communicate with parents and students.

I just read a book that got me excited about the increase in learning that can happen when technology and teaching are combined. It also got to the heart of teaching; working directly and personally with each student to guide them in successfully applying what they are learning. This book illustrates the impact that technology can have in changing the face of traditional classroom instruction. The book is titled “Flip your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day” by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams. These high school teachers have capitalized on the use of technology to create the best learning environment for each one of their students. Traditionally, classroom instruction is delivered during class and application happens in the form of homework (i.e. away from school). A flipped classroom is basically a classroom where the lesson content is delivered via pre-recorded video as homework, freeing up class time for application with guidance from the teacher. Think of all the benefits of this type of instruction!

First of all, the idea of homework could change significantly. Gone would be the days of frustrated parents and their children as they try to solve obscure math problems. In fact, parents could learn along with their children as they watch the instruction together. While they are watching the instruction, students have the luxury of pausing and rewinding to clarify or review. Bergmann and Sams required that each student take notes and come up with at least one question that they didn’t know the answer to. The notes are then checked during the next class period and the teacher listens as each student asks their question. These questions are then directly addressed.

In addition to putting an end to the homework wars, a teachers’ job could become more enjoyable. These authors are quick to say that a flipped classroom does not mean less work for a teacher. In fact, they say that it is about the same amount of work as a traditional classroom. The pay-off comes in being able to spend more quality time helping each student and seeing each student learn. This  approach could also potentially mean more in-class time for discussion or debate concerning current events that relate to the subject, time for engaging activities and projects, and time for teachers to answer questions and provide, in person (i.e. not through red ink), feedback to each student.

Finally, such a classroom would have an impact on the quality of instruction that students receive. Teachers would be more likely to prepare clear and intentional content knowing that it is being viewed by students, teachers, and administrators. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to evaluate and improve his or her own teaching. A flipped classroom would also require a teacher to evaluate and design in-class activities to ensure that each student is getting the feedback and direction that he or she needs as well as the opportunity to engage in higher quality learning and assessment activities.  With this approach, teachers could have more face-to-face time with each student, so classroom management could take on a whole new feel as well.

I could go on about the perceived benefits of this type of instruction but I also generated some questions as I read this book. For example, what implication does this have in relation to the Common Core State Standards? How would this look in an elementary school setting? Do schools/homes have resources to provide such instruction? Has any research been published that examines this approach compared to more traditional classrooms?

Most of all, this approach seems to have the potential of making each student responsible for learning as well as providing the teacher with a means of differentiation, through daily, one-on-one time with every student. The use of instructional technology in the classroom has, indeed, come a long way! I recommend reading this book and considering how it could change your classroom. 

By Reading Horizons Reading Specialist, Stacy Hurst

How many words are there in the English language? A question with a complicated answer. Depending on your criteria, the answer can range from somewhere around a quarter of a million words to one million words, give or take a few hundred thousand. Even to the most enthusiastic logophile, that is an overwhelming amount of words to use when reading, writing, and speaking. Thankfully, relatively few of these words meet most of our basic reading, writing, and speaking needs.

The English words needed for most communications are referred to by terms such as, sight words, high frequency words, and most common words. Researcher Edward B. Fry ranked these words in order of frequency. The first 25 words on the list make up about a third of all printed material. The first 100 make up about half of all written material, and the first 300 make up at least 65 percent of all written material (Fry, Kress, & Fountoukidis, 2000).

To quickly illustrate this concept, let’s look at this twenty-word quote by John F. Kennedy:

“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Here is what would remain if we removed words included in the first three hundred of the most frequently used words.

“fellow Americans”

Most Common Word Lesson #7 from Reading Horizons Discovery Software

The ability to quickly recognize these common words in written text helps students to read at a pace that is conducive to comprehension. Here is a painful example of what can happen to fluency when a word as common as the word the, is not automatically recognized.

The Problem

It stands to reason that these words are a major focus of beginning reading instruction. Because many teachers believe that most common words are highly irregular in their spelling, they teach students to rely on visual memorization as the best option. To teachers of these early grade levels this approach may appear to work just fine. In fact, research has shown that students in grades 1-3 do fairly well reading grade level text, increasing their accuracy and fluency each year.

This can be explained, in part, by the fact that about 80 percent of text at this level is comprised of the first three hundred most frequently used words. However, in higher levels words in text become more specialized and less familiar. In American schools, evidence of such a problem manifests itself sometime around 4th grade when reading scores cease to incline. This “4th grade slump” (Chall, Jacobs, & Baldwin; 1990) has been consistently evident over time. Without systematic, explicit phonics instruction, students will lack the skills necessary to decode words that are not as frequent.

The Solution

The notion that Most Common Words are irregularly spelled is incorrect. In fact, researchers have estimated that nearly 50 percent of English words are predictable based on sound-letter correspondences that can be taught with good phonics instruction. Another 34 percent of words are predictable except for one sound. When factoring in word origin and word meaning, they conclude that only 4 percent of English words are truly irregular (e.g., of, eye) and, as a result, may have to be learned visually (Hanna, Hanna, Hodges & Rudorf; 1966).

It is important to teach students how the sounds in language are represented in print. Phonics instruction helps students learn how to decode most words accurately and quickly so they can focus on the meaning of text. One very effective practice for teachers to implement is to teach students to recognize elements of Most Common Words that are consistent with the sound-letter patterns that they have learned during phonics instruction (Adams 1990). With this type of instruction, not only will spelling improve but reading fluency will continue to increase. Students will have the skills necessary to decode almost any word they encounter, even if it is the least frequent word out of hundreds of thousands of words in the English language.

REFERENCES

Adams, M. A. (October, 1990). Beginning Reading Instruction in the United States. ERC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills.

Chall, J. S., Jacobs, V. A., & Baldwin, L. E. (1990). The reading crisis: Why poor children fall behind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Fry, E.B., Fountoukidis, D.L., & Kress, J. (2000). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall

Hanna, J.S, Hanna, P.R, Hodges, R.E., & Rudorf, E. H., (1966).  Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences as Cues to Spelling Improvement. USDOE Publication No. 32008. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.